Things I Know I Know

...that I will be getting a puppy in November.

If I do get a puppy, he was born yesterday. And he is a German Pinscher.

There are still several bits of hoop jumping before I know for sure that I'm getting a puppy from this litter, but things are looking very possible at the moment.

I am also inordinately pleased that this litter is the 'J' litter (no one I tell this to seems to understand why I think this is awesome, but it's, like, a Sign). Seriously.

In other doggish news, Billie seems to be significantly less depressed than she's been, which is good because she was making me sad and driving me crazy, both.

We've continued visiting at the hospital once a week, which she really seems to like and the people we visit like her quite a bit too. So, fun for all.

I entered one day in the dog show last week, which went really well except for the end..when it didn't. I'm probably going to a dog show in Wisconsin in a month so we should be able to make up for things then.

Posted by debco at 11:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Today is my fiftieth birthday.

I am not going to be depressed today, because, really, what's the point? But, looking back, it is clear that I have managed to do an astounding amount of nothing in fifty years.

On the plus side, I have a good education, a job that pays well, I own my own home, I own my own business, I am an SF writer and I have sold stories to some of the top magazines in the business. I don't feel 'old.' I am in decent physical shape (by which I mean I could be in better shape, but there's nothing preventing me from getting there). I find there there is a tremendous amount that I want to learn and read and do.

On the negative side, I hate my job. It is the kind of job that masquerades as professional but really isn't, is stressful and busy but not intellectually rewarding and I have stayed in it long enough that in a credential driven world my best, possibly only, opportunity for a different job is to get one just like this one that maybe pays a little better. I have sold exactly seven stories over the last ten years, which means I am in a sort of professional limbo where no one knows who I am, but I am not a new writer (in the world of SF short stories, this doesn't really matter--write more good stories, get more stories published, and then, one hopes, people know--but it's where I am at the moment). I am too anxious, too easily stressed, too indecisive and I procrastinate too much. I am tired of being invisible.

And although it is cloudy and gloomy and sort of, but not quite, raining, I am going to take my dog for a walk and reflect on the fact that I am here, that many of the things that vex me are in my control, and that tomorrow really is another day.

Posted by debco at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I didn't get the house with the Perfect Yard. It went to people who I'm pretty sure will not fully appreciate the Yard Perfection they now own, but, hey, that's the way life goes.

I am now looking at a fairly nice house that has a Decent Yard. So, among other things I have to decide if Decent is good enough or if I should hold out for at least Pretty Good. (It does have a good-sized lot, but half of it's in front of the house which, in DebLand is called a Waste of Space.)

And I have decided that I'm definitely looking for a house with interesting architectural detail. Plus, I'm all about the built-ins....

Posted by debco at 05:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...is the title of a short story by Jerry Oltion and Adam-Troy Castro. It also pretty well describes this site.

I love abandoned buildings. I love the echo and the quiet and the sense of something not-quite-right. Abandoned places carry with them all the stories of the things that happened there. Occupied buildings conceal their stories with fresh paint and remodeling and file cabinets and doors. What we abandon retains scraps of what was, things we didn't care enough to take along, hints of who we were and, by comparison, where we've gone.

Cool stuff.

Posted by debco at 04:27 PM | Permalink

Gareth (whose last name I don't know and am too lazy to look very far for) gives us his best tips for making your writing suck less at StreetTech.

Among his suggestions:

• Throw out the first waffle Writers, especially newbies, often waste this first graph (or two or three) setting up their subject, gobbling up precious column inches, awkwardly warming up to their subject. When you're done with your initial draft, take a hard, dispassionate look at the first few graphs. See if you can slice 'em off. Be harsh
• Write like yourself, only more so This motto comes from science fiction author Rudy Rucker who writes what he calls "transrealist" fiction. He takes real situations and people from his life and exaggerates them in his novels. He believes this creates a more honest, grounded, textural fiction, even when dealing with out-of-this-world subjects.
• Sometimes the best things you write, you write by mistake Keeping a journal of your thoughts on anything (not just the mundane details of your so-called life), or engaging in good online conversation, are greats ways of learning how to write with freedom and immediacy. You'll be surprised how much turns out to be useable material.
• For god's sake, have fun!

Posted by debco at 10:57 PM | Permalink

Today's quote is again from The Art of Possibility, about why it's sometimes better to have heart than precision:

Stravinsky, a composer whom we tend to think of as rather objective and "cool," once turned down a bassoon player because he was too good to render the perilous opening to The Rite of Spring. This heart-stopping moment, conveying the first crack in the cold grip of the Russian winter, can only be truly represented if the player has to strain every fiber of his technical resources to accomplish it. A bassoon player for whom it was easy would miss the expressive point. And when told by a violinist that a difficult passage in the violin concerto was virtually unplayable, Stravinsky is supposed to have said: "I don't want the sound of someone playing the passage, I want the sound of someone trying to play it."

Posted by debco at 06:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The reason I bring up the 40 women party is because at one point all the women had to write down on a name tag the one thing we wished for. People had to guess who would wish for what and see how close we could come to knowing each other.

I wished for independence.

Now, you might think that's an odd wish for someone who has two dogs, a house and few other encumberances. The other women at the party did. You should have this obligation, they said. Or this one. Then, you'd see.

But every day there are choices that I feel are out of my reach, obligations that I don't want and didn't ask for that I must fulfill. If I were the person I want to be, I'd be independent. Not separate from people. Just powerful in a way that lets me make decisions independent of my next paycheck, of the people next door, of the clock and the guilt and the things that ought to be done because someone else needs them.

You can say it's a state of mind (though I'd argue that dependence on a paycheck diminishes that idea somewhat), but it's a state I haven't found yet. And it's one I'd like to try.

Posted by debco at 07:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

A friend of mine, on her fortieth birthday had a party to which she invited forty friends. "So it will be 40 women on my 40th birthday," she said.

Another friend of mine was very concerned about the whole idea. "Does that mean she's inviting 40 women? Or that 40 women are coming? What if she invites 40 women and only 37 women show up? Does it still count? What if she needs last minute substitute women? Where will she find them?"

It will work out fine, I told him.

Posted by debco at 07:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I don't always blog stuff that's already been cited in a lot of places.

But this, 110 Stories by John M. Ford, a poem about the World Trade Center told in 110 lines, one for each of the stories in the towers

...this is damn good.

Posted by debco at 07:27 PM | Permalink

Man Conquers Space envisions an alternate space program based on a series of articles published in Colliers in the 1950s.

What if all that cool stuff really happened?

...via BoingBoing (which is where all cool stuff resides)

Posted by debco at 07:20 PM | Permalink